Hi, I was trying to decide between a mac mini and an apple tv for a digital media center for my home theatre. I was wondering how the videos played from the apple tv look on widescreen hdtvs? I have a macbook that I sometimes hook into my tv, and a lot of the videos have black bars on the sides....I was just wondering if they would look any better by using the Apple Tv....not sure if it has any kind of settings for widescreen, etc..

Hi, I was trying to decide between a mac mini and an apple tv for a digital media center for my home theatre. I was wondering how the videos played from the apple tv look on widescreen hdtvs? I have a macbook that I sometimes hook into my tv, and a lot of the videos have black bars on the sides....I was just wondering if they would look any better by using the Apple Tv....not sure if it has any kind of settings for widescreen, etc..

Nope, the TV does NOT currently have any 4:3 vs Widescreen TV setting. However, it will play both 4:3 and widescreen content correctly if you have a widescreen TV (which I think you do since you mention black bars on the sides).

It's normal to have black bars on the sides when playing 4:3 content on a widescreen TV, and normal to have black bars at the top and bottom when playing widescreen content on a square (4:3) TV.